Achieving a combination of commercial and ontrack success at the level seen from Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit is so difficult to pull off that it can make a $1.2 million auction graduate look like an underdog story.
Malibu Secret
Malibu Moon-Ain’t No Tellin’, by Dynaformer
(Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm)
Like many products of the venerable Sam-Son Farm racing and breeding program, Malibu Secret’s ties to the Samuel family’s operation run back through several generations. For Malibu Secret, the link traces to third dam Hangin On a Star, a $550,000 yearling purchase by Sam-Son Farm in 1985.
Award-winning documentarian and media executive Soledad O’Brien will deliver a keynote speech focused on Thoroughbred aftercare at the inaugural Equestricon fan convention in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
O’Brien, who also will moderate a panel on aftercare success stories presented by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, will deliver her keynote at 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 14, at the Saratoga Springs City Center.
A lifelong horse lover, O’Brien has adopted two off-the-track Thoroughbreds from Akindale Horse Rescue in Pawling, N.Y., and owns five horses.
Eclipse Award winner Hansel, who captured the 1991 Preakness and Belmont Stakes during his championship campaign, was euthanized Tuesday at Lazy Lane Farm in Upperville, Va., due to the infirmities of old age. The son of Woodman was 29 and had been pensioned since 2012.
“He was a very talented race horse, and a consummate gentleman on the farm,” Lazy Lane general manager Frank Shipp said. “He gave so much to us, and to his fans. We will all miss him dearly.”
Mastery, a Grade 1-winning son of Candy Ride, has officially been retired from racing a day after arriving at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., and will debut at stud during the 2018 breeding season.
Every year, a handful of horses are bought at auction for a seven-figure hammer price, and whether the buyer will admit it, the list of goals for the new purchase almost certainly includes winning Triple Crown races.
As uncommon as a million-dollar horse can be within a foal crop, one that goes on to win a U.S. classic has proven even harder to find. Tapwrit’s victory in the Belmont Stakes made him just the fourth horse to win a Triple Crown race after changing hands at auction for $1 million or more.
Tapit keeps finding higher bars to clear. For three consecutive years, he has broken the single-season earnings record for a North American-based sire while leading the continent’s general sire list – this, after coming out of the gate by establishing what was then an earnings record for a freshman sire. The sire of several champions and classic winners, he reached the $100 million mark in career earnings last season, doing so faster than many of his contemporaries.
Two years after rocking Belmont Park by completing his Triple Crown sweep, American Pharoah was far from New York’s racing action last Saturday. The 5-year-old stallion has completed his second season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky and now has some downtime before heading to Australia this summer for his first Southern Hemisphere shuttle season.
Kentucky Derby winner Orb got his first winner Sunday, as Earth won his debut on the Gulfstream Park turf.
Earth wore down Pocket Book to win by a neck, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 75 for the five-furlong race. That is tied for the third-highest figure of the year among 2-year-olds, behind He Hate Me’s 79 in winning the Tremont Stakes at Belmont Park and the 77 earned by Gold Label in a Lone Star Park maiden race.
The unbeaten Mastery has arrived at Claiborne Farm, looking to a future as a stallion after his promising racing career was derailed by injury.
Mastery, the winner of the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity as a juvenile, improved his career mark to 4 for 4 by winning the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes by 6 3/4 lengths on March 11 at Santa Anita. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105 for that effort, still the top figure of the year for a 3-year-old male.
